Source : PERTHNOW NEWS
John Travolta has revealed how he managed to navigate his grief following the tragic deaths of his wife and his son.
The 72-year-old actor lost son Jett at the age of 16 in 2009, before his wife Kelly Preston lost her two-year battle with breast cancer in 2020.
Now John has dedicated his feature film directorial debut Propeller One-Way Night Coach to his late wife and son, telling Italian newspaper La Repubblica: “They are the model from which this film was born.”
Asked how he has coped following the passing of his loved ones, John replied: “Life has certainly tested me, (but my) nature is to look for the positive, even in the face of the worst.
“I’m not made to remain absorbed in the darkness. I can look at the darkness, but I don’t choose to die in that darkness.”
As well as directing Propeller One-Way Night Coach, John wrote it and narrated it, as it’s based on his children’s novella from 1997 – which documented his first flight in 1962.
It starts John and Kelly’s 26-year-old actress daughter Ella Bleu Travolta, alongside Clark Shotwell, Kelly Eviston-Quinnett and Olga Hoffmann.
The 61-minute film is said to have received four separate standing ovations when it premiered during the Cannes Film Festival, with the Hollywood star even awarded with a surprise, honorary Palme d’Or.
Of the movie, John added: “I hope audiences rediscover that gaze of hope. In 1962, we weren’t so overwhelmed by the obligation to always look at the dark side of life.”
Meanwhile, Ella previously said that she used her songwriting to help her grieve following her mum’s death, and even wrote the track Little Bird about her late mother.
She explained on The Today Show: “It’s different for each person going through loss, but for me personally, it was just this pure message that I wanted to give to my mum.
“Even though there can be so much support from everyone, it can also sometimes get in the way of how you truly feel and how you want to communicate those last words to that person.”
